2016 restock of this 2004 release. The resurrection of the classic No Wave label of the late '70s/early 80s is finally fully in place. This opening volume features historic tracks from: James White & the Blacks, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Lydia Lunch, Suicide, Mars, Rosa Yemen, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, The Contortions, Arto/Neo, James Chance & Pill Factory. The absolute best of the Ze catalog. Deluxe fold out digipak with 16 page booklet of liner notes/photos. "In the late seventies the No Wave bands created their own apocalyptic soundtrack of New York, self critical, riddled with arrogant doubts, these «brats» were their own worst enemies as well as their own best friends. Self-destructing and parodic chaos was the name of the game, playing the wrong note at the right time. No Wave music explored the original amateurism and anarchy of punk rock but took it further into a cubist brain game, rejecting the formulaic rhythms of rock and roll and the verse/chorus organization. Loose experiment, freaky amalgam of free-jazzer, Sun Ra, Ayler, Captain Beefheart, Velvet Underground, old root of black music. A perfect Psycho World Music. This compilation is a wild echo chamber of artiness and primitivism pushed to the extremes,deliberately unpretty and atonal with garage bands equipments. Alhough they barely receive credit, Suicide (singer Alan Vega and keyboardist Martin Rev) is the source point for virtually every synth pop duo that glutted the pop market place (especially in England) in the early 80s. Without the trailblazing Rev and Vega, there would have been no Soft Cell, Erasure, Bronski Beat, Yaz, Depeche Mode, you name 'em. Lydia Lunch from Teenage Jesus and the Jerks is a satanic Betty Boop, schyzo-Lolita whining and screaming boredom, sarcasm, romance and perversity, a dark sex kitten, porcelain skin poetess. The band is raw flesh, two string guitar, snare drum crashing and James Chance on sax, scary as a snake charmer dude on mescaline. Teenage Jesus is a pure object of blasphem, sex misery, surgical anger and aural terror. Rosa Yemen was a strange minimalistic combo creating soundtracks for guerilla movies that never existed using samples of Antonin Artaud screaming speeches or the hoarse agony of an African man digging soil. Mars stands as a cosmic marriage of surrealistic poetry and Beckett's void, wonderfully bizarre and disturbing, slow motion, jerhythmsthms, raw jaw power. Arto - Neto is a comet tail project of Arto Lindsay and Seth Tillett. James Siegfried, aka James Chance and the Contortions, aka James White wanted to be the most sensational and controversial act in NY.The group overall concept was simply funk minus pop harmony. The songs followed most dance-music conventions steady bass lines and drumbeats, soul derived syncopation, but totally out of control. The band played on frustration, tension, on making people angry and it worked. Pill Factory was another experimental project combining, James Chance, Arto Lindsay, Bradley Field and Georges Scott around Grutzy Elvis, the film featuring Anya Philips by underground guru Diego Cortes."